Chapter 46: I Want to Turn Myself In

Early the next morning, Asano Aiko drove to Akiwara Yuto's residence and received the manuscripts for the next two issues from him.

Although she was mentally prepared, after seeing the content of the manuscripts, she could not help but be surprised by Akiwara Yuto's talent.

These two manuscripts told two stories, titled "Searching for Blood" and "The White House in the Cold Forest," respectively.

The protagonist of "Searching for Blood" is an old man who has lost his sense of pain. He wakes up one morning to the sound of knocking on his door, and upon opening it, discovers it is his youngest son.

The youngest son walks into the room and finds the old man covered in blood. He walks behind the old man and is shocked to discover a knife stuck in his back. In a panic, the youngest son immediately calls the other family members and the family doctor, and dials the emergency number.

While waiting for the ambulance, the wife and the eldest son, seeing that the old man's chances of survival are slim, begin to argue over the inheritance. The family doctor suddenly tells the old man that the backup blood supply he had prepared to save the old man's life has unexpectedly gone missing.

In order to survive, the old man uses his inheritance as a bargaining chip, ordering his wife, eldest son, and youngest son to go find the blood bag, but they find nothing after half a day.

At this moment, the old man discovers a clue, realizing the blood bag might be in his room, and orders the youngest son to go get it.

After the youngest son brings the blood bag, the family doctor informs the old man that the bag is already empty.

The old man falls into despair, while the other family members discuss insurance matters as if nothing happened, even arguing over the property. The old man's consciousness gradually blurs, all his memories begin to replay involuntarily, and the clues emerge.

While he was sleeping, the murderer had sprinkled the blood bag on him through the window by his bed. Then, the murderer entered the room to wake him, telling him he was covered in blood. When he looked toward the door in a panic, the murderer stabbed the kitchen knife into his back. Because the old man lacked the ability to feel pain, he was completely unaware.

Therefore, the person who first discovered the old man was injured was the true murderer.

Although the old man knew who the murderer was, he did not expose him, but instead began to smile. Amidst his family's surprise and confusion, he closed his eyes forever.

The second story is called "The White House in the Cold Forest," which tells the story of a boy.

This boy lived in his aunt's stable from a young age, not only having to bear exhausting labor but also frequently suffering abuse from his aunt's family; only his aunt's daughter showed him any concern.

After the boy grew into a man, he was driven out of the stable by his aunt and began to wander in the forest. He wanted to build his own house in the forest, but lacked the necessary materials.

To obtain materials, the man began to kill passersby, using their torsos to make the foundation, walls, and even the roof of the house. In the end, he finally built his own house—a house where one could see countless eyes the moment they opened their own.

One day, a young girl came to the front of the house and requested that the man return her younger brother's corpse to her. To prove her sincerity, she specifically stood in the original position of her brother's corpse, acting as part of the wall.

As time passed, the girl also lost her life to hunger and cold.

The man was somewhat moved, and he decided to fulfill the girl's dying request. He dismantled the house, placed the corpses of the girl and her brother in a wooden box, and sent them to the home she had spoken of.

As it turned out, the girl's mother was none other than the aunt's daughter who had been the only one to care for him before...

Both of these stories are themed around irony, which is slightly different from the style of the four previously serialized articles. However, the underlying sense of horror in the stories remains consistent.

After reading them, Asano Aiko was somewhat amazed. Having worked with Akiwara Yuto for so long, she knew his personality was very easygoing and had absolutely nothing to do with the legendary psychopath.

But she was still puzzled: why could the articles Akiwara Yuto wrote make people feel such deep-seated creepiness?

Was this the talent of a genius?

Or was Akiwara a potential criminal?

After finishing the manuscript, she turned her head to look at Akiwara Yuto and found him already sitting at his desk, frowning as if considering some problem.

Guessing that he had encountered some writing difficulties, she gently put away the manuscript and quietly left the room.

Akiwara Yuto did not know that Asano Aiko had left; he had encountered a difficulty at this moment.

Adapting foreign works into local Japanese works required considering too many factors, making his progress very slow.

He pondered for a moment and decided he needed to make more trips to the library to see how others wrote mystery novels.

After all, this was a parallel world, and there were plenty of excellent works he could learn from.

He called Asano Aiko and asked for another two weeks off, which she approved very readily.

Having obtained permission, Akiwara Yuto resumed his daily routine of traveling between the library and his home, hungrily absorbing the knowledge he needed from piles of books.

During this time he spent "recharging," the fame of *New Novels* also grew further.

In the fifth week, the first-day sales of *New Novels* reached 18,000 copies, and the daily sales fluctuations thereafter were not significant.

When the statistics department tallied the weekly sales, they found that a full 78,000 copies had been sold!

In the sixth week, the first-day sales of *New Novels* broke through 20,000 copies, with the new sales mainly coming from the Yokohama area, where a group of fans seemed to have formed.

In addition to the initial print run of 40,000 copies selling out, there were three subsequent reprints, with total weekly sales exceeding 80,000 copies!

On the day the weekly sales data for *New Novels* was announced, Kikuchi Tai was ecstatic and gave everyone a half-day off.

He privately sought out Asano Aiko and told her to further improve her relationship with Akiwara Yuto.

Besides that, Kikuchi Tai also had Asano Aiko tell Akiwara Yuto that they would strive for more favorable terms in the future, including the manuscript fee per page and subsequent royalties for the collected volumes.

After learning this news over the phone, Akiwara Yuto was no longer as excited as he had been at the beginning; he was now mainly considering other matters.

Through the receiver, Asano Aiko seemed to sense Akiwara Yuto's distraction and asked curiously, "Akiwara, have you encountered any difficulties? Do you need my help?"

She suspected he had run into some problem and wanted to see if she could offer some advice.

After all, caring for the author's situation was also an important duty for an editor.

Akiwara Yuto had not expected her to offer help proactively; after all, what he was facing now was a creative issue, and the main problem was a lack of accumulated material.

He thought for a moment, and his previous idea popped up again.

Asano seemed to be a local of Tokyo; perhaps she had some connections that could help solve this?

He thought about it and asked directly, "Asano, do you know any police officers at the Metropolitan Police Department? Preferably from the Investigation Division?"

He didn't actually hold out much hope, but he asked anyway.

After all, to write a mystery novel, one could not avoid describing the police system, and among these, the most important was the Investigation Division.

The Investigation Division is the most highly regarded operational unit of the Metropolitan Police Department.

According to their types, they can be divided into Investigation Division 1, responsible for violent crimes such as murder, robbery, and rape; Investigation Division 2, responsible for white-collar crimes such as fraud and corporate crime; Investigation Division 3, responsible for cases such as theft; and Investigation Division 4, responsible for organized crime.

Inspector Megure from *Detective Conan* is a police inspector in Investigation Division 1.

Upon hearing this request, Asano Aiko was a bit surprised for a moment. Thinking Akiwara Yuto had encountered some trouble and needed to find the police, she said nervously, "Akiwara, has something happened?"

Hearing her tone, Akiwara Yuto knew she had misunderstood. He originally wanted to explain, but for some reason, he suddenly wanted to tease her.

He coughed and said with feigned seriousness, "No, I want to turn myself in."

Immediately after, he heard the sound of the receiver dropping to the floor...

Oh no, the joke went too far.